A total of 1,800 Iraqi personnel were trained on 50 different courses, including maritime, small arms, oil platform defence, and maintenance training, the Ministry of Defence said.

Britain is still involved in Nato's training mission in Iraq, with 44 UK military personnel still in the country.

Members of Iraqi Security Forces will continue to be trained at UK-based courses, such as the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.

Defence Secretary Liam Fox said: "Royal Navy personnel have used their formidable skills and expertise to bring about a transformation in Iraq's naval force.

"The Iraqi navy has a key role to play in protecting Iraq's territorial waters and the oil infrastructure that is so vital to Iraq's economy, and I am proud of the role British forces have played in making it capable of doing that job."

'List of negatives'

Brigadier Tim Chicken, director of the Iraq training mission, said the naval training had been conducted "out of the limelight" but had achieved "significant results".

"We have led the development of the Iraqi navy, seeing its growth from the most rudimentary of capability into one that stands at the cusp of taking complete responsibility for its territorial waters and critical offshore oil infrastructure," he said.

But Labour MP David Miliband, who was foreign secretary between June 2007 and May 2010, criticised the allied operation to rebuild Iraq.

"While there have been gains, the list of negatives has been long - longer than the list of gains," he told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show.

"I am afraid the failure of the Western forces to develop a proper strategy for peace, not a strategy for war, has held back the country.

"It is still to play for, despite the loss of blood and treasure, but I think that is the key lesson."